The city has no electricity
Posted on 11/23/2022 3:57:28 PM PST by delta7
If you are expecting dramatic news and pictures from the Donbass, where Allied troops are slowly but inexorably advancing, destroying thousands of Nazis of all Western nationalities and dozens of their military vehicles and piles of their equipment every week, as they liberate towns and villages (all unreported by the Western media), sorry. This is a story from the home front. It is a human story. I hope it brings it all home to you.
It is about a small town south of Kiev. Two years ago, Ukrainian (though they are Russians, as far as they are concerned) members of my family, a couple with two grown-up children, bought a brand-new house there. I have been there and stayed there. Last year. I know it well and the road from there to central Kiev. I could take you there now.
First of all, it is snowing. Photos sent to me show it. The long Indian summer is well and truly over. And the Russians have decided to use the same tactics as the Americans used in Serbia: launch missiles at the energy infrastructure. Thank you, USA, for your example of how to wage war.
The Ukrainian currency, the hryvnia, has dropped by 30% against the dollar, pound and euro. Everything that is imported has increased in price by at least that much. Many things by 100%. Though that is similar to the situation in Western Europe, where I now live. On top of that what you used to get from Russia is now unobtainable because of ‘sanctions’.
Only, in the Ukraine, this is against the background of the bankrupt economy being propped up by the US/UK/EU to the tune of billions of dollars per month. How do you fancy living in a country with a drop in GDP of 40% this year? And there is no sign of any change in the future, at least not until the Kiev regime collapses, Zelensky leaves for Miami from the roof of the US embassy via helicopter (remember Saigon?), Nazis cling to the outside of US aircraft taking off from Borispol Airport (remember Kabul?), other fanatical nationalists leave for Poland (some already have), and Russia liberates the whole country, as now seems necessary and inevitable.
Property prices in central Kiev have fallen. Many are trying to move out, as there are mainly flats and also the explosions are mainly in Kiev. Of course, if you are in a high-rise block, you will never sell unless you are on a low floor. Nobody wants to get stuck in a lift or, almost as bad, if you have to take your groceries up to the fifteenth floor by the stairs every day.
You have to do everything yourself. There are few workmen left because they have been abducted, screaming and kicking, into the armed forces. If they are lucky, they will be able to surrender to their Russian brothers before they get turned into body dust or shot in the back by the hated Ukrainian secret police. The workmen who are left charge astronomical rates. My relatives are very glad that they finally completed everything just a few weeks before it all began in February.
Last Thursday X saw a bad accident on the road nearby: the traffic lights were not working because of a power cut. That is happening all over. The streets are in darkness, no lights.
Many work from home, or used to. That is difficult now, because at best you only have three to four hours of electricity before it goes off for at least the same amount of time. There is no light. And then even the best batteries in a computer mean that you lose power after an hour or two – that is, if you have the internet, which is not all the time.
And remember to charge up your phone as soon as the power comes back on. The power will not last and may go off all day. You have no way of knowing. And when the power goes off, the boiler also goes off. No heating, no hot water. The windows are taped across in Xs against possible missile blasts, which would cause the glass to shatter. My relatives saw a missile going over last May. It landed in Kiev.
And sometimes the washing machine will stop half-way through the cycle. Power-cut. That is inconvenient. And always remember to carry a flashlight in your pocket or handbag and have at least one other one in the house. Many are using Swedish-made primus stoves to cook – if you can get one and the refills. Some Swedes are doing well out of this.
As for shopping, well, the opening hours change with the power cuts, though corner shops remain open, if dark. And of course, Kiev has gone back to a cash economy. The card machines will not work – no electricity. Hopefully, the bank cash dispensers will get restocked often enough. That is, if you have money in your account.
My relatives do not have a car. Many of the Ukrainians who are wealthy enough to have cars drove to the West last March/April/May with their recruitment age sons (bribes of up to $5,000 a time to the border guards, who left last), and now live in cramped quarters in the houses of Western people naïve enough and once prosperous enough to take them.
My relatives are very lucky because they can get on minibuses to take them to their house in the country. Just a wooden affair, but there are vegetables there, especially potatoes, and lots of firewood. They had a busy summer in the large vegetable garden. They prepared for the winter, picking, bottling and pickling. The only way of heating there is putting wood in the stove. No gas, but then you do not need any. And you can even live without electricity, as there is a stock of candles. The only thing – it gets really cold there in the winter, -20 or -30 outside, -10 inside, unless you heat constantly. So you stay inside as much as possible and prepare lots of dry firewood for years before.
All of this is a warning to Western Europe. I know you are being distracted by the World Cup soccer circus. Do not be. You too voted for US puppet-leaders like Zelensky? You too wanted to be Ukrainianised by the US? Then this is your future too. You have been warned. I have friends in Latvia, Lithuania and Moldova. They are already living like this. This is a virus that is creeping westwards towards you.
You are seeing your future – unless you can get rid of your pro-Nazi puppet-governments in time. Elect Russia-friendly governments. Make friends with your neighbours next door, in the east of Europe. (Never heard of ‘love your neighbour’?). Moscow is 1,600 kilometres from Berlin, around 2,500 kilometres from Rome, Paris and London. You know it makes sense. You could be nice and warm soon.
This is propaganda, isn’t it?
One can burn dried fecal matter to stay warm.
Forty billion in American money buys a lot of imports.
I don’t know who’s “winning” or not but I know propaganda when I see it.
AccuWeather has Kiev at 39 degrees. The forecast has temperatures dropping over the coming days to 25 degrees.
German civilians survived winters in bombed out cities during WWII. Life wasn’t easy for them for many years after the war
The city has no electricity
When are you moving back to victorious Russia? You should get yourself over there ASAP so you don’t miss the victory party in Red Square. Maybe you can sit with Putin on Lenin’s Tomb. You’re such a Russian patriot it’s obvious you belong there.
Yes, it is just Russian propaganda. The Russian forces have not succeeded in moving the front lines in the Donbass more than a 1000 meters after months of effort and thousands of dead Russian soldiers.
You appear to have serious issues with those who have differing opinions than you and fail to take your own advice to those you don’t like.
We are supporting a charity in Romania that is sheltering Russian men from conscription. This saves their lives and denies their service to Russia every bit as effectively if they’d been killed.
This is us doing our part for peace and doing so without violence.
We are doing what we can. Obviously, you are doing what you can by posting endless reams of propaganda for Putin. But you definitely deserve a medal, like Hero of the Soviet Union.
That has nothing to do with what I posted - but then perhaps you need an ego boastful moment. Your arrogance is noteworthy.
Furthermore....Both sides are armed and unafraid to die....When both parties are unafraid of death death will always become unimportant to a soldier. The charity you’re supporting is not harboring soldiers/fighters....they’re merely russian citizens.
Is it so difficult to see that those of us who are indifferent to your passion should not be forced to support belligerent actors with our hard earned tax dollars? Name any other conflict in the world. I don't want to pay for either side there either and you have no right to ask it. As the old man said, "we have no dog in this hunt." Stop attempting to make me give a care because I don't.
I wonder how his relatives would feel about his exploiting their suffering and the destruction of their country for his politics like this if they knew, assuming they exist.
My stance on this conflict is that Russia is the aggressor. None of this death and destruction and human suffering would be happening if Putin did not invade. All the excuses given as to why Russia was “forced” to invade are BS. Denazification, joining NATO…. Russia has been the aggressor here not NATO, Georgia crimea…. NATO was not a threat to Russia nor to China. Their actions are their own personal ambitions. Russia did t need to expand even now pro kremlin sources say the Russian economy is just “fine” andChina was doing just fine without expansion, seriously Taiwan is a speck compared to mainland China and do they expect to move in and start making chips like nothing happened. Is Taiwan a threat to China was Ukraine a threat to Russia? If Poland Finland Lithuanian Latvia and Estonia have not invaded Russia was Ukraine going to? Every bit of this lies at the feet of Putin and his ego and desires
As to tax payer money being used to defend Ukraine we did it in ww2, for almost 2 1/2 years we sent money supplies equipment to England and then Russia to fight the invading Germans before US got directly involved. The weapons and ammunition being sent now were built for the purpose of a Russian invasion of the west and is being used by Ukrainian for that purpose. These weapons are degrading Russian military forces and as a byproduct showing many weaknesses of the Russian equipment and military structure. That is a good thing
Should Ukraine have just surrendered for “peace”
How has appeasement worked in the past? Chamberlain came back to England with a piece of paper saying peace in our time. Did that work? Did giving another sovereign counties land to hitler produce peace?
Do you believe that after taking Ukraine and no western response except for strongly worded letters and most likely toothless sanctions Putin was going to stop?
as long as Ukrainians choose to fight then I believe we should support them
Ukraine is not belligerent. They are defending themselves.
Now that Russia is a designated state sponsor of terrorism I hope that opens up legal avenues to arrest and prosecute supporters of that terrorist regime.
Like you.
Belligerent:
a nation or person engaged in war or conflict, as recognized by international law.The definition does not differentiate by just cause.
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